San Francisco, CA.Two years and two months ago today marks the first time activists blocked a Google Bus to bring attention to the tech boom-fueled housing and inequality crises. Since then the situation has only gotten worse and spread further across the Bay making basic livelihood needs nearly impossible to sustain for no, low and mid-income residents. Today, the date of the final hearing to address the private shuttles’ permanency despite being illegal under state law, at-risk tenants and housing advocates with the Last 3 Percent, Heart of the City Collective, Housing Rights Committee of SF, SF Tenants Union, Causa Justa Just Cause, Eviction Free San Francisco, Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and Senior Disability Action blocked six tech coaches. They reissued their demands: End the Two-Tier System. Stop Deregulation and Displacement!

“The black population has dropped to a mere three percent as rents and evictions have skyrocketed,” said Melissa Crosby with The Last 3 Percent. “While the mayor and politicians cater to corporations and tech wealth, our families are losing their long-time homes. We’re out here today to reclaim SF. We ain’t goin’ nowhere!”

The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project found that evictions and rents spike around private shuttle stops as real estate is inflated when advertized in proximity to them. They also discovered that the number of times these shuttles stop in SF has increased by 46% over the past year. Meanwhile, researchers in UC Berkeley’s City Planning Department found that 40% of riders would move closer to their place of employment should the program be discontinued. “San Francisco has the highest income inequality and some of the highest rents and eviction rates in the country,” said Deepa Varma of the San Francisco Tenants Union, “so why would our representatives approve a program that only exacerbates these problems?”

Behind the scenes of our local crisis, Orange County Republican and California State Assembly member Travis Allen is rushing to change CA Vehicle Code 22500, the state law that these shuttles have been breaking since their inception. It clearly says that only common carriers can use public bus stops. Instead of making these multi-billion dollar companies pay for pubic infrastructure and their impact on our communities, their exclusive transportation system may simply be legalized. His amendment AB-1641 states, “This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety…”

Anti-displacement activists blocking the private luxury coaches today question the supposed urgency of gifting our public assets to companies that are collectively dodging over $75 billion in taxes, which has effectively defunded our public infrastructure. They’re demanding that politicians take up the eviction crisis as an urgent matter and use their power to help keep folks in their homes and keep local communities intact. Rejecting this illegal program that has worsened the housing crisis by facilitating thousands of high-wage Silicon Valley workers’ reverse-commute would be a step in the right direction.